Patrick Mayhew

Mayhew was born in Cookham, Berkshire, on 11 September 1929.^[1] His father, George Mayhew, was a decorated army officer turned oil executive; his mother, Sheila Roche, descended from members of the Anglo-Irish Protestant ascendancy, was a relative of James Roche, 3rd Baron Fermoy, an Irish National Federation MP for Kerry East. Through his father, Mayhew was descended from the Victorian social commentator Henry Mayhew. He was educated at Tonbridge School, an all boys public school in Tonbridge, Kent.^[2][3]

He then served as an officer in the 4th/7th Royal Dragoon Guards, studied law at Balliol College, Oxford, and was president of the Oxford University Conservative Association and of the Oxford Union.^[4] He was called to the Bar by the Middle Temple in 1955.^[3]

Mayhew contested Dulwich in 1970,^[3] but the incumbent Labour member, Sam Silkin, beat him by 895 votes.^{[citation needed]} He was Member of Parliament (MP) for the Tunbridge Wells constituency from its creation at the February 1974 general election, standing down at the 1997 election.^[5]

He was Under Secretary of Employment from 1979 to 1981, then Minister of State at the Home Office from 1981 to 1983.^{[citation needed]} After this, he served as Solicitor General for England and Wales from 1983 to 1987,^[6] and then Attorney General for England and Wales^[7] and simultaneously Attorney General for Northern Ireland^[8] from 1987 to 1992.

He was Secretary of State for Northern Ireland from 1992 to 1997.^[1]

He was one of only five Ministers (Tony Newton, Kenneth Clarke, Malcolm Rifkind and Lynda Chalker are the others) to serve throughout the whole 18 years of the Governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major.^{[citation needed]} This represents the longest uninterrupted Ministerial service in Britain since Lord Palmerston in the early 19th century.^{[citation needed]}

Mayhew was knighted in 1983.^[6] On 12 June 1997, he was given a life peerage as Baron Mayhew of Twysden, of Kilndown in the County of Kent.^[9] He retired from the House of Lords on 1 June 2015.^[10]

In 1963, Mayhew married the Rev. Jean Gurney, and they had four sons.^[4] His son Jerome Mayhew is the Conservative MP for the constituency of Broadland and Fakenham (previously Broadland) in Norfolk since the 2019 general election.

Mayhew, a devout Anglican, was a churchwarden at Christ Church, Kilndown.^[1]

Mayhew suffered from cancer and Parkinson's disease in his later years.^[11] He died from cancer at his home on 25 June 2016, aged 86.^[1][11]